Techland announces the opening of a new development studio in Canada, which
includes some of the folks from Radical Entertainment who lost their jobs
last summer. They explain how this
studio fits into their organization: "Up until now, titles by Techland have been created
in two development studios, located in Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland. Those studios
are now joined by the new facility, located near Vancouver, Canada. The new
branch, named Digital Scapes Studios, is led by Managing Director Marcin Chady,
previously longtime Technical Director of Radical Entertainment, a subsidiary of
Activision Blizzard. From the same source are a number of other employees of the
new Techland owned Canadian studio. Team members previously contributed to
titles such as two installments in the best-selling Prototype series, which was
enthusiastically received by players and media alike. Digital Scapes Studios are
currently tasked with the creation of certain key elements in the new game Dying
Light, currently in development by Techland in partnership with Warner Bros.
Interactive Entertainment." Speaking of Dying Light, a
new video offers the
first look at gameplay in the upcoming first-person, zombie survival/horror
game. The day/night cycle is a significant factor in the game, and this
"pre-alpha" clip focuses on what players can do in the clear light of day.

PHJF wrote on Aug 16, 2013, 19:24:So we had Dead Island which was extraordinarily rough but nonetheless fun, Riptide which took forever to release while bringing nothing new whatsoever to Dead Island, that medieval demon game with assets straight from Dead Island, and now this one which looks... remarkably like Dead Island.

Keep broadening those horizons, Techland.

What surprise me is how they can do all this with the money from Dead Island. Did it really sell that well?

Techland has been around for a while. The Dead Island and Call of Juarez games probably earned them some decent money. Also, I'm pretty sure Canada gives tax cuts and/or other incentives to studios looking to start up in the country.

Yeah, I was thinking it totally looked like a console/controller demo with the way and how slow the character view was panning.....

Almost every demonstration of a multiplatform game is done with a gamepad. It's a lot easier to make slow, steady and smooth motions with a gamepad and that makes for a more "cinematic" video. It's also easier to follow than watching someone make quick and drastic movements.

Alamar wrote on Aug 16, 2013, 21:03:The 'throwing skills' guy was the first char I played, and the only one fun enough to get through the game... After throwing shock knives that AOE on the target, moving to a blade/blunt weapon, or a gun seemed... weak...

-Alamar

Interesting. I got annoyed picking up thrown weapons after the first few fights, found Sam(the blunt guy?) a bit too easy, the Korean edged weapons girl even more overpowered, and finally settled on the gun woman. She probably had the weakest skill tree, but I ended up jump kicking/headstomping 80% of the enemies anyway, and unloading firepower only on minibosses/bosses.

Hopefully Dying Light doesn't end up promoting the jump kick/headstomp combo too much, but I feel they won't get away from weapon degradation and extremely limited ammo, even though neither of those mechanics are fun to a certain percentage of players. If that ends up being the case, I'll be kicking the brains out of another 40,000 zombies or so in this game.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Aug 16, 2013, 18:40:I played through the entire Dead Island campaign, even though it got a little grindy for my tastes, mostly due to zombies respawning in areas you just cleared as you make your way back.

The free running aspects seem pretty fun, the graphics look vastly improved, I'll probably at least try this on a Steam sale or something. Although Warner Bros is involved, this may end up being cursed with GFWL.

Hopefully this time the character powers aren't so horribly balanced... did anybody actually play the throwing skills guy in Dead Island?

The 'throwing skills' guy was the first char I played, and the only one fun enough to get through the game... After throwing shock knives that AOE on the target, moving to a blade/blunt weapon, or a gun seemed... weak...

PHJF wrote on Aug 16, 2013, 19:24:So we had Dead Island which was extraordinarily rough but nonetheless fun, Riptide which took forever to release while bringing nothing new whatsoever to Dead Island, that medieval demon game with assets straight from Dead Island, and now this one which looks... remarkably like Dead Island.

Keep broadening those horizons, Techland.

What surprise me is how they can do all this with the money from Dead Island. Did it really sell that well?

So we had Dead Island which was extraordinarily rough but nonetheless fun, Riptide which took forever to release while bringing nothing new whatsoever to Dead Island, that medieval demon game with assets straight from Dead Island, and now this one which looks... remarkably like Dead Island.

I played through the entire Dead Island campaign, even though it got a little grindy for my tastes, mostly due to zombies respawning in areas you just cleared as you make your way back.

The free running aspects seem pretty fun, the graphics look vastly improved, I'll probably at least try this on a Steam sale or something. Although Warner Bros is involved, this may end up being cursed with GFWL.

Hopefully this time the character powers aren't so horribly balanced... did anybody actually play the throwing skills guy in Dead Island?

My only option growing up was Silicon Knights, and I bombed my interview, so I ended up making a crap ton more money instead... Instead of making games and being abused... Pro's and Con's all around : )

Looks seems like Dead Island 1.5. I like the day/night cycle, but why do zombies become more vicious at night? Sounds like vampires. The tactics would change at night because you can't see but you can hide better maybe. I enjoyed Dead Island a lot (not a perfect game by anymeans), but the only difference seemingly with Dying Light, is the night time and zombies get more vicious at night?

Survival games seem to be getting more and more popular, this looks too much like Dead Island. But its early, ill wait and see.

I hope the parkour is more like Mirrors Edge where you had to more actively use the controls to achieve the jumping and climbing and there are trick jumps to learn to improve your abilities, etc and less Assassin's Creed where it's all 'hold down q' and the game does the rest.

I enjoyed Dead Island so I really don't mind if they do something similar, though it looks more inspired this time around. I like that the zombies change and become significantly more threatening at night. There never was anything like that in Dead Island.

Hope they keep the difficulty up. Dead Island is one of few modern games that truly got difficult in some areas.

QTE-fest, and the gamepad control is a bad omen for us bitter PC gamers looking for a good PC FPS with little hand-holding. Still, I'm curious how the parkour shit works. Do you simply approach something to jump over or climb on, and the game does all the work? Or is there an "action" button of some kind? Also, this dude gets bit several times. Just how do zombies become zombies?

It looks like Dead Island with much better graphics. You can even see some mini boss opponents from DI in the video. I'm interested, because I liked the first Dead Island game. DI: Riptide wasn't as good as its predecessor, so I hope it's more like the first game.

The parkour stuff looked alright but the rest looked pretty bog standard Dead Island in a slightly new setting. I'll check it out when its further along in development. I wonder how it would handle multiplayer.